


Stay With Me (My Blood)

by Rockingham



Category: Choices: High School Story: Class Act (Visual Novel)
Genre: Abuse, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Child Abuse, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-15 20:14:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18506266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rockingham/pseuds/Rockingham
Summary: Skye was never left alone with her mother. It was an unspoken rule at the Crandall house that Skye and her mother would never be left alone together. There were just too many…incidents when her father and brother weren’t around. On the few occasions her and her mother were alone, her mother had a nasty habit of drinking, sometimes rather heavily, and she was a mean drunk.





	Stay With Me (My Blood)

Skye was never left alone with her mother. It was an unspoken rule at the Crandall house that Skye and her mother would never be left alone together. There were just too many…incidents when her father and brother weren’t around. On the few occasions her and her mother were alone, her mother had a nasty habit of drinking, sometimes rather heavily, and she was a mean drunk.

She never seemed to do this when her brother or father were around. The only alcohol her mother consumed when they were around were maybe a glass or two of wine at dinner, and that was it.

But take the two Crandall men out of the picture? All bets were off, Skye could remember a handful of nightmares from the last few times she had been left alone with her mother, much like she was tonight.

The first time they were left along together, Skye had been six or so and her mom chased her around the kitchen with a scissor for thirty minutes before her father had come home. In a drunken state she had suddenly found Skye’s long hair unbearable and sought out to cut it herself. Skye still had a scar on the back of her neck from her mom getting annoyed and slashing at her with the scissor.

Skye was nine the second time, maybe her dad thought her being older would mean she could better handle herself. However that was proven not the case when she had gotten pushed down the stairs to the basement. She can’t remember why, something about not getting her mother the bottle she wanted from the wine cellar and her mom forcing her to go back down to get the correct one. She simply hadn’t moved fast enough and had broken her leg in the process. Another light scar on her calf was the reminder.

When she was thirteen just before high school, her mother had slapped her, hard, across the face for telling people her and Brian weren’t related. Her father was home for that one, but didn’t do much to stop his wife. If it didn’t require a hospital visit, he really didn’t care. That’s when Skye learned her father wasn’t protecting her by coming home or setting up situations were her mother wouldn’t drink…he did it to protect himself. A hospital visit came with questions, a slap across the face or a push into the pool was normally something that didn’t require a cast or stitches to fix. So as long as her brother and mother didn’t send her to the hospital, they could do whatever they wanted with her.

As long as no one asked questions about why Skye was hurt, or why she was bleeding, or why she had a bruise, he didn’t care. As long as it didn’t threaten to have them investigated or their name questioned, everything was fine…

This time there was no real way to prevent having the two alone in the house together. Brian had a meeting with some coach at a college he wanted to go to and had thrown a fit at the idea that his uncool mom would come with him. So the two were left alone in the large Crandall mansion alone. Skye talked through the house like she was walking on eggshells, trying to stay out of her mother’s line of sight for as long as she could. 

Her mother had already finished off a 30 year old bottle of red wine and a few shots of sambuca that she had done only a few moments after the men had left, complaining about how she was stuck with the family disappointment for the weekend. After a few hours, Skye had wondered down for food. It was around diner time and with her mom already clearly intoxicated, Skye knew she would be stuck cooking something that her mom would criticize and yell at her for anyway. Her mother doesn’t say anything as she opens another older looking bottle from the wine cellar and poured herself a drink. 

“What do you want for dinner?” Skye asked hesitantly as she set herself into the kitchen, it was safe to ask, even if her mother would hate anything she made. Skye wasn’t particularly talented in cooking and couldn’t make anything fancy, but if she didn’t ask she knew it’d be worse.

Her mom scoffs. “Like I’d eat  _anything_  you make. It’s bad enough I can’t send you to get the wine from the cellar anymore. What good are you?”

It was going to be a long weekend. Skye sighs, she really isn’t that hungry, so she goes to make a sandwich to hold her over for the night. She’s not even half-way through it when she hears a crash and her mother cursing. Curiously she looks over to see one of the bottles broken on the floor. The empty 30 year one that her mother polished off first.

“SKYE” Skye jumps at the sudden shout of her name, “COME HERE”

Skye moves automatically, even though in the back of her head she knows what her mother is calling her over for. It’s almost instinctual when she finds herself by her mother as she glares at her.

“Deal with that.” Her mother gestures to the broken bottle on the floor as she goes back to her wine and whatever soap opera was on TV. Skye lets out a breath before kneeling down to pick up some of the larger shards before getting the broom to handle the smaller ones.

She isn’t sure if her mom forgot she was there or what, but she feels something slam into her side hard causing her to loose her balance and attempt to catch herself with her hands. One of the glass shards cuts into her palm in her attempt to catch herself, sending a sharp wave of pain up her arm as she feels something pouring on her from above. She must have let out a noise because her mother glares down at her.

“Look at what you did!” Mrs. Crandall cries as she looks down at Skye, “You spilled my wine!”

Skye doesn’t say anything, her first instinct is to stand up, get out of her mother’s way. Her second instinct is honing in on the pain her in hand. She moves her left hand so she is holding her right wrist as blood slowly seeps from the embedded shard in her hand.

“What? Why are you just standing there?” Her mother takes one look at her now very bloody hand, and scoffs. In one quick motion, her mother reaches over and pulls the glass from her hand, causing Skye to let out a startled yell as her skin is ripped open more. “Quit being a brat about it, it’s just a cut.” 

Her mother walks back to the kitchen tossing the glass shard somewhere along the way. Skye holds her wrist tighter, rushing towards the bathroom and grabbing the roll of paper towels from under the sink and pressing a large quantity of them to her palm, holding it above her head and trying to stop the bleeding.

It hurts. She feels like her hand is burning and the bleeding isn’t really slowing down. Skye fishes her phone out of her pocket and slowly starts texting her father. She may need to go to the hospital, but she doesn’t think she can wait until her father and brother come home late tomorrow…she really, really doesn’t want to go and get into trouble with her father because she drew unwanted attention onto them.

Her father takes fifteen minutes to answer.

_Fine, go to the hospital, but you did it yourself._

Fine. She’ll go, and take full credit for it…as soon as she finds someone to take her. She can’t walk, and she doesn’t even have a permit to drive yet. Her mother was clearly out of the question when she pokes her head out the bathroom door and sees her mom finish the sandwich Skye had made for herself that had been forgotten. Skye sighs going through her phone and stopping on Rory’s number.

**SKYE: Hey–I accidentally cut my hand, I think I need to go to the hospital. Can you drive me?  
**

**RORY: WHAT? YEAH I’LL BE OVER IN 5!**

Skye pockets her phone, taking a breath before slipping out of the bathroom and stealthy making her way through the front door before her mom notices she’s leaving. She walks down the pathway and to the curb. Her head is pounding and she starts to feel dizzy. As soon as she gets to the curb she feels herself sink down until she’s sitting on the curb. The cold air hits her face as she brings her head forward, resting her forehead on her knee and holding her hand up as high as she can.

Skye stays like that until she hears a car pull up.

“Skye!”

Skye’s head shoots up when she hears a voice that doesn’t belong to Rory. Bailey had hopped out of the car as Rory steps out as well, worried looks on both of their faces. 

“Are you OK?”

“Yeah, I just cut myself kinda bad. Why are you looking at me like that? There’s not even  _that_ much blood!”

“Yes there is!” Bailey points out incredulously as the paper towels that were pressed to her palm were deep red with her blood. “Come on, Mrs. Silva’s coming with us too. She figures we may need an adult.” 

Bailey helps her up. Skye wobbles on her feet a little, feeling dizzy upright. Bailey seems to notice as she places a hand on her waist to try to keep her from falling over. Rory opens the car door for them as they pile into Rory’s car before she speeds off to the hospital with Mrs. Silva occasionally giving directions.

“That’s quite the cut dear.” Mrs. Silva pointed out with a worried expression. Rory peeks through the rear-view mirror looking over at Skye as her mother talks. “How did you manage that?”

“Cleaning up broken glass.” Skye grumbled quickly, not really wanting to talk about the how. It felt embarrassing to say her own mother got drunk because she hates being left with her and had broken a bottle. 

Mrs. Silva gives her a worried look and Skye has a feeling the older woman knows there is more to the story then that. However, she doesn’t ask any more questions and goes back to telling Rory what route is the fastest to the hospital. Skye lets out a breath as she feels Bailey’s hand rest on her knee, she turns over to see Bailey giving her a soft look.

“Higher,” Bailey directs a second before her hand comes over and wraps around the wrist of Skye’s injured hand raising it up higher as it had slowly lowered. Skye feels her vision blurring a little as the drive continues, she’s clearly loosing quiet a bit of blood and she’s worried she may pass out from the pain alone. 

Rory pulls up quickly as Bailey and Mrs. Silva hop out with Skye while Rory swings around to park the car. Skye notices the bleeding seems to be slowing down at least a little. Bailey wraps her arm back around Skye’s waist as they head to the waiting room of the ER.

It’s mostly quiet, there are a few people there, one mother with a crying child, some older guys who look like they got into a fight at a party or bar, some girl who looked like she was having stomach issues, and then them, Skye with her bloody hand and the two people who were escorting her.

Mrs. Silva fills out the paperwork as Skye answers the questions, since her right had was the one that was cut Mrs. Silva had offered to fill in the paper so she didn’t get blood on it. After that they wait in the room quietly as several nurses come in and clear out the patients as quickly as they can.

“What did you break dear?” Mrs. Silva asks as they sit there, Skye thinks for a second, not sure what to answer with.

“A bottle.”

“A wine bottle?” Mrs. Silva raises her eyebrow at Skye expectantly, “Dear, I hate to break it to you, but you smell like red wine.”

Skye thinks for a minute before she remembers her mom complaining about how she spilled her wine…oh, that’s what spilled on her when her mom almost tripped over her. Before Skye can come up with an excuse, she feels Mrs. Silva place her hand on her back.

“And before you tell me you were drinking it, why is it on the back of your shirt and your hair?”

Skye’s silent. She doesn’t want to do this. She doesn’t want to talk about this. She just wants to shut down and pretend this didn’t happen. Mrs. Silva’s expression softened. The nurse comes out and escorts them into one of the rooms were the nurse looks over Skye’s hand and starts asking her questions about how she got the injury. She answers in as few words as she can. The nurse confirms that she needs stitches and that she’ll get a doctor.

The room is silent for a few moments, Skye doesn’t really want to talk to anyone anymore, the entire situation left her tired and she just wanted this to be over with. After a few seconds she sees the pink flash of ombred hair as Bailey steps into her line of sight. Without saying a word, she raises her hands and allow them to gently run through Skye’s hair, pushing the stray wisps of hair back into place. 

“You still with me?” Bailey asks softly. She had gotten very good at picking up when Skye was shutting down on her, usually she could coax her back to reality with a few words and a gentle touch.

“Yeah,” Skye’s voice gave away how exhausted she was. Bailey offered her a warm smile before leaning forward, kissing her softly on the nose before pulling back.

“I’ll be OK.” Bailey assures, the words should feel like lies, but the way Bailey said them could make Skye believe it every time. 

The doctor comes in, He’s a nice enough guy as he tries to coax Skye into some conversation as he numbs her hand for the stitches. Skye isn’t easily baited into a conversation and he eventually give up as he checks Skye’s hand for any smaller shards of glass before he picks up the needle to start stitching up her hand. 

Bailey threads her fingers through Skye’s non-injured as the doctor leans forward, the first stitch causes Skye’s hand to tighten around Bailey’s. The doctor seems to have noticed her tense as he tries to coax her into another conversation. Bailey understood he was trying to distract her while he stitched up the cut, but again, Skye proved to be a challenge. It was because she was tired, she didn’t walk to talk, so she wont. It was as simple as  that.

“Try not to tense up like that, it will make it hurt more when the stitches go in.” The doctor informed as he continued working. The nurse holds her own position and Bailey can tell she’s prepping to restrain Skye if she moves too much.

The doctor’s wracking his brain for something, Bailey can tell by the way he’s slowly preparing for the next stitch.

“Hey,” Bailey said softly, “So I was helping out at the restaurant today and that really weird customer I told you about came back, the one that always orders pie with extra whipped cream and only ever eats the whipped cream..”

It’s a really stupid story, but in moments she has Skye’s full attention. The doctor flashes a smile as he notices Skye relax her injured hand enough for him to continue the stitches without hurting her more then needed.

“So Casey finally decides to walk over and ask this weirdo why he only ever eats the whipped cream and this guy  _looses it_! He starts yelling about how he paid for this pie so he’ll do whatever he wants with the pie. Casey had no idea what to do, he just stands there while the customer rants and then pays his tab without leaving a tip!” 

The doctor finishes the stitches during Bailey’s story, he takes a minute to clean and wrap the area before he stands up.

“Alright, all done.” The doctor moves away when he’s finished. Then automatically goes through various care instructions and ends saying that the stitches can come out in a week. “We’ll have everything written as well before you leave.”

This was surprisingly directed at Mrs. Silva. It seemed to surprise her a bit, she was sure the doctors would question where Skye’s parents were as it was pretty clear she couldn’t be related to the people who brought her in.

Skye on the other hand knew. Her father probably called ahead, set everything up so no one was surprised when a girl walked in with people who weren’t her family. Her father probably gave consent for Skye to be released with whoever she came in with just in case.

As soon as he leaves, Mrs. Silva moves to update Rory who was still waiting in the ER waiting room, she tells Bailey and Skye to head over when they were ready. The two sit there for a moment, Skye rested her injured hand on her lap, it still hurt, like if someone cut her open which she supposed was accurate. 

“Hey, so-” Bailey starts as she rubs her arm, “Mrs. Silva seems really worried, and…Well I…”

Bailey stammers for a moment before taking a breath.

“What happened?”

Skye still doesn’t want to talk about it, she just wants to go home, go to bed, pretend the entire night didn’t happen. But…Bailey’s looking at her with a soft look that makes Skye feel also compelled to tell her, even if she knew there was no way Bailey could do anything to make it better.

_you did it yourself_

Her father’s words echo in her head for a second. 

“It’s nothing you don’t already know.” Skye tried to brush it off, “I just got in the way.”

Bailey’s hand comes up and Skye flinches. She doesn’t mean to, but she’s still in flight mode from her encounter with her mother. Bailey’s hand rests softly on the side of her face, her brown eyes soft as she leans forward slightly.

“What can I do?” Bailey asked softly.

Bailey’s eyes are soft and honest, they weren’t trying to run or hide from the demons in Skye’s head or the ones in real life. Bailey didn’t care what it was, the only thing she ever cared about was how she could help Skye.

Skye takes Bailey’s hand with her uninjured hand, leaning forward and resting her head on Bailey’s shoulder. She feels the other girl move her hand to the back of her neck, thumb brushing against her neck.

“…Stay.”

Don’t leave. 

“I’m not going anywhere.”

The two stay like that for a while before they figure they’ve left Rory and Mrs. Silva alone enough. Mrs. Silva smiles as they regroup in the waiting room, a handful of papers that Skye assumes are the care directions for her stitches in her hands. 

“OK girls, let’s head back, Skye, Honey, you’re more then welcome to stay the night with us until your parents get back from their trip.”

…

Skye gives a confused look, only her brother and father were out for the night.

Must be her father’s cover story that he gave to the hospital. Figures.

“That’s OK Mrs. Silva, I’ll be fine.” Skye says despite not really wanting to go home, she figures her father would blow his top if he found out she didn’t go back to the house that night. Or her mother would start looking for her in the morning. If she wasn’t massively hung over…and she’s sure she’s caused the other three enough trouble

“Are you sure?” Rory asked as she offered Skye a smile, “It really isn’t any trouble, we’d love to have you.”

“No, it’s fine, you can drop me off at the house.”

The two share a concerned look.

“Are you sure? It’s getting pretty late.” Rory says despite the fact that it was barely past eight at night.

“It’s fine, you don’t have to worry about me.”

The ride back is mostly silent. The closer they get to the Crandall house the more Skye realizes she doesn’t want to go home. She doesn’t want to be in that house with her mother. She doesn’t want to be yelled at or hit or anything else tonight. She just wanted to be left alone, she wanted to wash the horrible wine smell from her hair and go to bed. Sleep in late to avoid another confrontation with her mother.

“Are you sure we can’t convince you to spend the night with us?” Rory asks as she slowly pulls up to the now dark Crandall house. Skye gets out and turns to the two in the front who are still giving her concerned looks.

“I’ll be fine. Thanks for driving me.” Skye offered before turning and hesitating a minute before starting her walk up the yard and towards the front door. She hears a car door open and shut before the sounds of Rory’s car driving off.

Skye’s a few feet from the door when she hears someone clearing their throat,

“Skye,” It’s Bailey, “You forgot this.”

Skye turns and sees Bailey handing her the care directions from the doctor. Skye stares blankly for a second before turning to where Rory’s car was no longer on the street before looking back at Bailey.

“Sorry, I just,” Bailey rubs the back of her neck, “I…didn’t feel right leaving you alone tonight.”

There’s a large part of Skye that’s very happy Bailey was offering to stay with her. She really didn’t want to be alone and spending the night snuggling with Bailey actually sounded really good to her right now. But, there was a nagging at the back of her mind, reminding her of the monster behind the front door that was probably waiting for her. She’s sure her mother would be either out cold from drinking, or watching TV and ready to scream at her some more.

Bailey notices Skye’s surprised expression and misreads it as her going too far.

“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be weird, if you want I can walk home.” Bailey offers as she backs up a few steps. She’s turning to make her way back down the yard when something in Skye snaps.

“Wait!” It’s the loudest her voice had gone through the entire evening, her hands reach out and take hold of the back of Bailey’s shirt, keeping her from moving much farther away. Bailey stops in her tracks, looking over at Skye. “Please, stay.”

Skye’s white knuckle grip causes a new wave of pain to run up her injured hand. Bailey turns back to her, a bit surprised by the outburst but quickly moving forward, wrapping her arms around Skye’s shoulders. 

“OK,” Bailey murmurs into red hair as Skye’s grip relaxes, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Bailey’s hand rubs against Skye’s back until she feels the redhead relax in her arms.

“Come on, we should get you inside and resting.” Bailey points out as Skye realizes they still have a bit of an obstacle to get over. Skye pulls away slightly,

“OK, but we have to stay quiet.” Skye insisted as she took Bailey’s hand and slowly led her through the front door. The other girl looks at her slightly confused, but follows at her heels quietly.

The kitchen is dark and the only light on the bottom floor seems to be from the TV in the living area. Skye slips through the door with Bailey in tow and the two slink up the steps and towards Skye’s room. Skye figures her mom must have fallen asleep on the couch sometime after she had Rory take her to the hospital. 

Bailey doesn’t question why they are sneaking until they are safely in Skye’s bedroom, door closed the second Skye pulls Bailey through.

‘Why all the sneaking? Is your brother here with you?” Bailey asks and Skye remembers the lie her father told.

“Not…exactly.” Skye offers running a hand through her hair, sighing, “Can we talk about this a little later? Maybe after I get this wine out of my hair?”

“Sure,” Bailey says softly as she places the care directions on Skye’s desk, glancing at the various sketches on the wall and across the top of the desk. “Oh, you can’t get your stitches wet, so be careful. I can help you change the bandage afterword.”

“OK, I’ll be careful.” Skye offers as she grabs a shirt and pants to sleep in, “I think I have a few of your T-Shirts here somewhere if you want to change.”

“Oh, the ones you stole.” Bailey offers in a teasing tone to cut the tension of the night. Skye feels a smile tease her face.

“Borrowed,”

“Sure,  _borrowed_.” 

“Fine, you can  _borrow_  something of mine if it makes you feel better.” Skye teased, Bailey cracked her knuckles like that was a challenge. Skye just shakes her head and slips out the door to the bathroom to clean up. It proves to be a challenge to keep her injured hand from getting wet, but she eventually manages to use one of plastic gloves her mom uses to re-touch her roots to keep her hand dry long enough for a quick slower and changes into what may have been one of Bailey’s Golden Grill T-shirts and sleep pants. 

She slips out the bathroom and is heading back to her room when she feels a sharp pull on her hair.

“There you are!” Her mother yanks her by the hair until she’s facing her. “Where did you run off to?”

Skye doesn’t get a chance to answer, Her mom reeks of wine far worse then she did almost an hour ago. It’s clear by the more noticeable slur that her mother had at least finished the second bottle of wine.

“Your father called you ungrateful  _bitch_ ,” her mother throws her to the floor. She hits the ground with a yelp as her mother stands over her, “You’re always making such a fuss over little things. I bet it wasn’t even that bad, you’re just overdramatic and selfish. You have no idea the trouble you just caused me.”

Skye doesn’t say a word, she tries to push herself upward, but her hand highly protests the move. Her mother is practically screaming at this point, and Skye doesn’t know what to do, she just wants to be left alone for the rest of the night.

“Leave. Her. Alone.”

…Bailey?

The girl stands at the doorway to Skye’s room, glaring at the older woman. Bailey storms over, her voice raising.

“Skye needed  _stitches_ , and you couldn’t be bothered to take her to the hospital yourself? You’re the selfish person here! You don’t get to blame her for you being a terrible mother. And if anyone here is a  _bitch_ , it’s you!”

“You little-” Skye’s mother raises her arm, probably to smack Bailey, Bailey flinches back, surprised. But before her mother can bring her arm down, Skye’s up on her feet, wrapping her hand around her mother’s wrist hard, stopping her mid-swing. “Get. Your. Hands. Off. Me.”

“Go to bed,” Skye orders, now tightening her hand around her mother’s wrist, causing a look of surprise to flash in her mother’s eyes. “I’m done, you either go to bed and sleep off all the stupid expensive wine or I’ll start fighting back. And you won’t like where that’ll go.”

It’s a bluff. Years of dealing with Brian may have gained Skye unusual strength for her size, but she’s never used it to go against her family, and certainly not her mother. Her mother stares at her for a moment.

“You wouldn’t.”

“If you lay one hand on Bailey, you’ll be more then surprised.” Skye glares at her mother, despite the fear that still gnawed at her insides, she was much more concerned about Bailey. If her mother did anything to hurt her…

The very idea set Skye’s blood on fire. It wasn’t like when her mother attacked her. Skye knew her mother didn’t like her, she knew her mother drunk would mean she’d be physically attacked, but it was something else to know that someone she cared about deeply would be hurt. She didn’t want Bailey hurt more then she didn’t want to be hurt. 

Her mother takes a minute before pushing Skye hard, causing her back to hit the wall of the hallway behind them before turning around.

“Bitch,” her mother throws over her shoulder before going back to the master bedroom, swaying a little as she goes. The second she slams the door Bailey is at Skye’s side.

“Are you OK?” Bailey’s fingertips brush against Skye’s face she examines the other girl for injuries for a moment before Skye nods.

“I’m OK,” It’s more of a lie then anything else, but Skye’s tired and she just wants to go to bed and forget any of this. She leads Bailey back to her room and is halfway to the bed when she hears Bailey’s cracked voice.

“Did your mother hurt your hand?”

Skye sighs a bit, “Yeah, this kind of stuff happens a lot when we’re left along together. My mom drinks and she can get like this. She usually doesn’t remember anything the next day, so she’ll probably forget everything by tomorrow morning.”

“SKYE!”

Bailey’s voice is loud and it causes Skye to turn to her only to notice the tears that had started running down Bailey’s face. 

“Why are you talking like this is normal? Your mom sent you to the hospital tonight, and you’re acting like it’s no big deal!” Bailey takes a few steps closer, “She’s the reason you have stitches in your hand, she was here the entire time and you…you still came back here and you got hurt again! Why didn’t you tell us? We would have made you come home with Rory so you wouldn’t get hurt again.”

“This doesn’t happen all the time.” Skye offers, “It only happens when we’re alone together, I guess my mom just…really hates…having to deal with me.”

Skye wraps her arms around herself as Bailey’s eyes softens.

“So why choose to come back? You know we’re here to help you. You don’t have to deal with her when she’s like this.”

“Because I..” Skye’s voice cracks a little, “Because what if it’s the right thing to do?”

Bailey looks at her completely confused for a second.

“Because everything I do is wrong to her, what if I finally do the right thing? Maybe then she wouldn’t…hate me so much.” 

Skye’s voice gets quiet at the end, her eyes burn as fresh tears start making their way down her face.

“I don’t know what I did to make her hate me, but I don’t want her to hate me anymore.” Skye sighs, lowering herself so she’s sitting on the edge of the bed, “Sometimes I think if maybe she pushed me around a little she would feel better about whatever I did to make her angry and then it’d get better, and it does for a while I guess, she won’t yell at me for a week or she’ll not make comments about how I dress or something, and then she’ll go back to the way she was before. Then whenever we’re left alone, she gets really bad. Everything I do annoys her and she can’t stand being in the same room as me. And I don’t know what I did to make her feel that way.”

Hot tears run down her face and Skye moves her hands to cover her face, her breathing going a little uneven at every sound that threatens to pass through her throat. Bailey walks closer until she’s in front of the other girl. Slowly she lowers herself onto the bed next to her.

“You stood up to her though, when she went to hit me.”

“Because she was going to hurt you.” Skye states almost matter-of-factly. “I wasn’t going to let her do that.”

“But-”

“I’ll never let anyone hurt you, you understand?” Skye’s voice gets a little stronger and there’s a protective edge when she looks up at Bailey’s equally tear-stained face. Her eyes hold a bit of fire, she doesn’t care who she has to fend off to keep Bailey safe.

“But…what about you?” Bailey asked, “I love how protective you are, and I love how you’re always by my side. But I want you to care about yourself too. I want you to care about you the same way  _I_  care about you.”

Skye turns to look at the other girl, Bailey is looking at her with a warm look, eyes trying to express how much she cared for the girl next to her. Wordlessly she moves to pull the two down onto the bed so they are laying next to each other. Her arms wrap around Skye protectively as one of her hands runs through Skye’s hair repetitively.

“I care about you a lot.” Bailey murmurs as Skye feels herself relax in Bailey’s arms. “So I’m not going to let anyone hurt you either.”

Skye traps her arms around Bailey, being careful of her injured hand and burying her face in the other girl’s neck. 

“I…don’t think I want to stick around tomorrow.” Skye says slowly. Maybe Bailey…maybe being with someone who did care about her was better then staying with someone who clearly didn’t. 

“We can go have breakfast at the diner. I’ve been working on a new muffin recipe.”

Skye smiles against Bailey’s neck, exhaustion quickly taking over as Bailey’s warmth slowly lulled her to sleep. 

“Anywhere but here.”

“Anywhere but here.” Bailey agreed as their breathing eventually evened out and they fell asleep in each other’s arms.


End file.
